Past Lives
by emfalcon
Summary: When Ebony wakes up in hospital, with no clue to her identity and only a locket to go by, she struggles to find the man that haunts her dreams and her heart. I wrote this years ago in school so forgive the writing style, I can assure you it has improved over the years! (I hope so anyway!)
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

'DO IT!' she screamed at him. She watched him through the flames as they grew higher and higher, stealing the oxygen from her lungs. He had frozen. Unable to move, just watching her slowly fade away behind the fire. 'Just Fucking Do It!' she was struggling for breath now, the inferno was quickly eating away at her oxygen. 'DOCTOR!' she yelled.

'I can't.' she saw him say. He was too far away for her to be able to hear him speak. He was leaning against the wall with one hand, and in the other he was holding the inactive sonic screwdriver to the monitor built into it.

'Yes you can! You have to! You don't have a choice!' She yelled at him, taking a couple of steps back as the flames started to lick at her clothing.

'I don't want to lose you, Ebony.' he mouthed to her. His beautiful chocolate brown eyes swam with tears. It seemed unusual for her to see him sad. She was used to seeing his face in deep concentration or with a huge cheeky grin on him. Savouring the memory of his smile she yelled:

'You won't! I will always be yours!' She started coughing from the intense heat. She saw another man walk up behind him. Like the Doctor, he was tall and had dark brown hair but was better built than him. The man put his hand gently on the Doctors shoulder and said something to him.

The Doctor finally took his eyes of the dying girl and pressed one of the buttons on the sonic screwdriver. The monitor exploded. Along with the section of the room the girl was trapped in.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

_Poor sod_. She thought as she looked down at the corpse of a middle aged man lying on the P M table. He was yet another victim of a weevil. His records said he had a wife and a son. The smell of his flesh starting to decay was disgusting.

It was a good thing her white coat was too big for her, she was able to use the end of her sleeve as a mask. But she could still smell it.

'Owen! Hurry up!' She yelled up into the main control room of the Torchwood hub. Owen quickly came round the corner carrying his clip board. He jogged down the stairs and practically slammed the board down next to the victims head. He looked pissed off.

'Sorry, Ebs. But some bastard thinks it's funny to put my stuff in with that old lady we picked up the other day. You know the one that tries to rape you every time you're near her?' Ebony stifled a laugh with her sleeve. 'What was that?' Owen asked her.

'Well, Erm. That bastard happened to be me.' He looked up at her and frowned. She returned it with a cheeky smile. 'Ahh, you know you love me.' She laughed at his facial expression which all but said _bloody women_.

'I think I will leave you two alone seeing as you have managed to lose your sense of smell.' She pulled off her coat and folded it over one of the steps next to her. She looked back at Owen. He was watching her with his silently mocking dark eyes. He turned away and ruffled his dark blond hair.

'Okay, whatever. Make me a cuppa tea while your dossing off though will you?' Ebony replied with a polite hand gesture and started walking up the white tiled stairs. 'Two sugars please love.' Pretending she didn't hear him she carried on walking. She passed Toshiko, the computer whiz, typing away yet again at the computer, surveying many screens at once. She saw Ianto, the good looking 'tea boy', tidying up some of Owen's mess he made from lunch.

'Hey, Ianto.' He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her.

'Oh, Hiya Ebony. Skiving again are we?' He smiled at her and carried on tidying up the left over crusts of a couple of Corned Beef Sandwiches.

'Yep.' She said proudly. 'Just don't let head office know.'

She watched him as he smiled. 'Do you know where the boss is?' She asked him, she needed to speak to him. It was happening again.

'He's in the conference room staring into space.' She thanked him and headed up the stairs to the conference room. Once in there she saw Captain Jack Harkness sitting at the head of the table slouched in his chair with his arms folded, clearly in his own little world. When standing he was tall, even for her. She was 5'10" and from the height difference she would say he was about 6'1". She leant against the wall and studied him for a moment. His dark hair, his dark blue eyes and strong facial features made him look every bit as charismatic and, for lack of a better word, _Captiny_.

She remembered when she first met him.

First found out about Torchwood.

She had woken up in a hospital. Machines bleeping noisily around her, drips stuck in the back of her hands. Electrodes stuck to her chest and most disturbingly a tube down her throat. She started choking and gagging. There wasn't a nurse in sight. She pulled at the tubes around her mouth and accidentally disconnected herself from the oxygen. She was tugging away at the ties that were holding her tube in place and managed to get them off. Then with one huge gag she pulled the tube clear of her throat. Suddenly she saw a nurse pop her head round the corner of the small, impersonal room she was in. Once she saw she was awake she shouted to some other nurses and they came running in.

After they had calmed her down and stopped her from trying to rip out her I.V drips, they got a Doctor in to talk to her. He was alright looking, she thought. He had blonde hair and green brown eyes and must have been in his early 30's.

He sat down in the chair next to her bed and had out her file, adding bits to it here and there before he started asking her questions.

'Right. Let's start with the easy one.' He said. 'Could you tell me your full name?' She looked at him puzzled. Her name . . . what was it?

'I, Erm, I don't know. I don't remember.' she told him. He paused for a few seconds still watching her.

'Ah.' He said. 'I was afraid of this.' He quickly wrote down some notes in her file, which she now noticed didn't have her name on. 'Okay.' he continued. 'Well, do you know what year it is?' he asked her.

'No.' she replied feeling stupid.

'Okay.' More notes being written down. 'It's 2005. On to the next; Do you know what happened to you?'

'No.' she was feeling even worse now.

'Right, well based on my experience I think you might have been in a severe fire or explosion.' He saw her face drop even further and said quickly 'But amazingly you have been left with no severe burns, just cuts and bruises. Okay, now. Do you have any memories at all? Really search around up there and see if you can find any for me.' She thought really hard to try and find something. Eventually she found some. Not many and no good quality ones, but she found some.

'I, I was trapped behind a wall of fire. There was a man too. He couldn't get to me, couldn't save me. I was shouting at him to 'do it', shouting at him to blow the room up. He didn't want to lose me, that's what he said. Then another man said something to him then he made the place explode.' He looked at her sadly,

'Well, if I'm not mistaken I think that was your last memory. The memory of what happened to you. Do you remember anything else?'

'Yeah.' she said to him. 'I can see these flashes of creatures. Aliens I think. They aren't human anyway.'

'Hmmm.' He said to himself. Then he muttered as he wrote down more notes. 'False memories implanted by imagination.'

Great, she thought.

Not only do I remember almost dying and some aliens, but they are my only memories and Mr. PHD over there thinks I'm crazy.

'Do you know who I am?' She asked him. He looked up at her and sighed.

'I'm afraid I was hoping you could enlighten us all on that one.' He leaned over to the bed side table and picked something up and placed it in her hand. 'Apart from your clothes this was the only thing you came in with.' She looked in her hand and saw a little silver locket. On the front there was a strange decoration. It had symbols on it that she didn't recognize. She looked at the back, there was an inscription.

_Ebony,_

_Love Your Doctor._

She looked over at the doctor sitting next to her. 'Oh, it's not me, someone else.' He smiled weakly at her.

She went back to studying the locket. She opened it up. There were two sides to put pictures in, but there was only one; one of a man with dark hair and chocolate brown eyes and a huge, cheeky grin.

'This is him.' She said. 'This is the man in my memory.' She studied the picture further. It looked like it had been ripped. One side was jagged and rough. This was part of a different picture.

'Now, the funny thing is.' The doctor said to her. 'When you came in, you were covered in dust and stuff, typical of an explosion. You were filthy. But that necklace was spotless. Not a scratch on it, almost like it was brand new. Like someone had put it on you after the incident. But I think _you_ might be Ebony.'


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

After surprisingly being diagnosed with amnesia, she was given some clothes that one of the nurses bought in for her and was given the address of a hostel that would house her for a while.

Before she left the room she checked herself in the reflection of the glass window. Could be worse, she thought and she studied the now green bruise on her forehead. She pulled her shoulder length jet black hair out of her pony tail and tried to cover her bruise as best she could. She was pretty. She had delicate features and dark green eyes which she looked at last before turning and walking out of the room to find the hostel.

The people there were nice. They gave her some money so she could go and buy some clothes with it to make a change from the black jeans and light blue t-shirt she was given. But instead of buying clothes she chose to save the money. She was going to need it because she wasn't going to go back to the hostel. Instead she went to the train station. She bought a one way ticket to Kings Cross station in London. Once there she felt completely alone. She didn't know what to do; all she wanted to do was to be able to remember. Remember who she was, remember who the Doctor was. She walked aimlessly round the streets for about half an hour until she came across a bar called 'The Cross Kings.' She looked inside and saw it was quite busy, but it looked like a nice atmosphere. She walked in, the bell above the door tinkled again as the door closed. There were people everywhere she looked, people talking so that you could only just hear the music over them. She walked over to an empty stool at the bar and sat down. A few seconds later the young bar tender took her order. He was probably older than her, she had no idea. She didn't even know when her birthday was. After her 5th club double shot of Vodka, she was feeling more than just tipsy.

She noticed a guy sit on the stool next to her. She asked the bar tender for another drink, the guy next to her suddenly said:

'Hey, I'll get that. And a water too.' he had an American accent. She looked round at him, to find that he was staring at her. There was something familiar about him.

Something she couldn't quite work out.

'Do I know you?' she slurred. He smiled. The bar tender put the drinks in front of the strange guy who slid her vodka shot over to her.

'I don't know. Do you?' He asked her, taking a sip of his glass of water.

'No, seriously, have we met before?' She asked. He looked down at his wallet as he pulled out some money to give to the bar tender.

'Maybe in another life.' He said. 'Name's Jack, Jack Harkness, Captain. You are?' He held out his hand for her to shake. She looked at it but turned away and downed her drink. She slid of her stool to stand up but found that her legs had already left without her. She steadied herself on the bar before turning to go.

'What's your name?' He asked again. She turned to start walking out of the bar.

'I think it's Ebony.' she said. He got up and walked with her out of the bar and into the London night.

'Ebony who?' He asked her. She stopped and looked at him.

'Look, what do you want? I'm trying to drink myself into a stupor, so let me do it in peace.' She staggered away from him and round the corner. The smell of the Kebab shop making her hungry.

'What's your last name, Ebony?' He asked. She was getting really annoyed now. She wanted him to leave her alone. She stopped and turned round. He was following her.

'Look, I don't know my last name alright. All I know is that I was in an explosion that this guy in my locket made.' She pulled out the locket from her t-shirt and showed it to him. 'I have no idea how old I am. I have no idea if I have any family or friends. I don't know when my birthday is! And to top it off my only other memories are of _bloody aliens_!' She started to cry. 'All I know is I need to find this locket guy, The Doctor.' She turned away and carried on walking. A Shiny black SUV pulled up next to her.

Jack walked up to the SUV and put his head in through the open window and spoke to someone. He stood up straight and turned to her.

'Ebony. Come with me. We will take care of you.' She looked at him with suspicion.

'I think I'd rather go curl up in a doorway and sleep, thanks. Bye' She started walking again. She didn't get very far when she felt strong arms round her, one around her waist and the other over her shoulder and his hand covering her mouth. She felt a sting in her neck and her vision started to go more blurry than it already was. She felt herself dropping to the ground but she was still being held by whom she soon new to be Jack as he whispered into her ear:

'I'm sorry, Ebs. You'll be okay. I will look after you.' Then she faded away into darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

When she woke up she found herself in a bed. She remembered getting up and finding the bed was under the floor of someone's office. She wondered round the place until she found someone that was sitting at a computer station. He had looked at her then said:

'Alright love? How you feelin'?'

'Like Shit. Who are you?' she asked. He got out of his swivel chair and walked over to her.

'I'm Owen.' He held out his hand for her to shake. She took it.

'I'm Ebony.' He still had hold of her hand.

'I know. I'll take you up to him.' He pulled her along and up some stairs before leading her into a large room with a huge table in which a man was sitting at. 'I'll leave you to explain, Jack.' Owen said as he left the room.

That was when she was told about Torchwood and the truth about aliens. That's how she joined them. That was a year and a half ago.

And Jack was sitting in exactly the same seat then as he was now.

'Jack?' She said as she walked over to him. He swung round on his chair to face her.

'Ebs. Is everything okay?' She perched herself, next to him, on the edge of the glass table.

'Not particularly.' she sighed and looked at him. 'I keep getting this feeling again. Like something calling me. It's just so close, Jack. I just can't get to it. Every time we go looking for some kind of clue it,' she tailed off and sighed again. 'I don't know. Like, lifts off a layer and the memories I need become nearer. Like pass-the-parcel. Or like a word you know you have heard and used before but you just can't get the right trigger for your memory to get it.' She buried her face in her hands. She just felt like screaming. Jack comfortingly put his hand on her knee and continued to look up at her.

'You have the feeling again? Where is it calling you to?' He asked in a soft voice.

'Cornwall.' she said uncovering her face. 'St. Michaels Mount, the island with a castle type thing on top. Gets surrounded by the sea when the tides up.' He smiled at her. Then, as he stood up, he pulled her up with him and held on to her upper arms with his strong hands.

'Let's go then. At least this one's calling you to somewhere relatively close this time. It was hell driving up to the Shetlands.' Bless him, she thought. She couldn't expect him to go with her every time she remembered a place from, what she now called, her past life. But she did need to go.

And if someone had to go with her, she would want it to be Jack. He had looked after her since she got wasted in London. To this day she still doesn't know why he turned up and why he brought her to Torchwood, but she suspected it might have been her hospital notes. Toshiko had access to every kind of file imaginable.

Dentist's records, criminal records, hospital records. Even files she wasn't supposed to be able to open, she still could.

When she had told her Doctor about the flashes of memory of aliens he must have written it down in her notes. Toshiko must have stumbled across them somehow and showed Jack. But that was just a suspicion.

'Jack, I can't ask you to go with me again. It's just going to be another dead end. We won't find anything.' He gave her a disappointed look.

'Ebony, when we found you I told you that I was going to look after you. That means helping you. And if that entails following some wild goose chase round the world, then so be it. And besides, what have you got to lose?' He raised an eye brow. 'Another one of Owen's wonderfully detailed PM's?'

Her colleagues probably didn't understand why she kept disappearing off to random places with Jack. But they accepted it and wished her luck. Toshiko always gave her a hug and told her to keep in regular contact in case something happens. Ianto would pat her a couple of times affectionately on the shoulder and would tell her to look after Jack. And Owen would give her a slap on the arse and a wink and tell her to 'Bring back a t-shirt, Darlin'.' Then as she would respond with a 'Piss off.', He would say, 'I'm a medium on top. But if you bring back some boxers then you'd be better off gettin' a Large.'


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

As they pulled the SUV into a car park, they could see the Mount about 3/4's of a mile down the beach. They were silent as they walked along the sand, she was too nervous and worried to talk, and Jack was respecting that.

The tide was out so they were able to walk over the cobbled road laid into the sand to get across. It was early spring and the wind was still icy, so Ebony had wrapped herself up in an all-weather sailing jacket she bought when they had taken one of these trips down to the Isle-of-Wight.

The Mount looked beautiful. Its ever-green trees stood out against the blue-grey sky and the grey castle was standing proudly on top of the island watching the world pass by. She could see people standing on various parts of the castle and its boundaries. There were people watching a ferry from the grass in front of one of the entrances and other people were staring out at the mainland from one of the high vantage points near the highest point of the castle.

They walked up through the small town and passed small shops selling souvenirs, rocks and coloured quarts geodes. Passed the little quay where they kept the boats for transporting people back and forth when the tide was up. There was a long, wide, sloping pathway leading up to the base of the castle. Along the edges at intervals there were plaques near rocks and benches and wells depicting a myth or story that involved that item. At one point there was a row of bars like on a prison cell but in the floor and underneath it was a hole, Jack had stopped and was reading the plaque and she could have sworn she heard him mumble something like _Giant my ass. Poor Thomas, made an excellent roast dinner._

After about two hours of looking round the castle and studying everything, they had still not found anything that had stood out in Ebony's mind. Eventually they came to the newly blooming, beautiful garden that was round towards the back of the castle. It had statues and an ornate birdbath. She wondered off leaving Jack looking at a section of garden while she went and admired the view out to sea.

'Ebony'. Jack called her back over to him. 'Let me see the picture in your locket again.' he said and she pulled it out of her coat, un-fastened it and handed it to Jack. He stood silently staring at the picture for a moment.

'What is it?' She asked him. He looked up at her then moved closer to her so she could see the picture in the locket clearly too. Then he started lifting it upwards, then she realized as well.

In the picture there was a small amount of background visible behind the mystery man's head. It showed what she had thought to be a tree branch, but now as she looked from the picture to the object behind it she realized it was actually the arm of a statue. A metal statue of a pretty girl in a long flowing dress, with one hand outstretched as if reaching out for someone and the other resting gracefully over her chest.

'Holy shit.' She said, a few people looked round at her for saying it but she couldn't care less at that moment. Jack was looking at the statue again.

'You know. That statue looks a hell of a lot like you.' He didn't have to say it for Ebony to realize that the statue was a spitting image of her. Even down to the bridge of her nose which must have been broken at some point and was now slightly bumpy.

She sat down on the bench a couple of meters behind her, staring at the ground. Jack was still examining the statue. She had been here in her past life. She must have been. How else could that statue be here? And the mystery Doctor Locket man had to have been here before too. The proof was in the photo. Then just like being slapped round the face, she remembered.

They came here together to see the statue, to see where it had ended up. She remembered mocking her own pose and laughing with the Doctor. She remembered saying to him 'that's one of the only times you will ever see me in a dress, so savour it.' He had given what appeared to be a camera to some unsuspecting tourist and told them to take a photo of him in front of the statue, a picture where he was standing next to her.

'Jack, I'm in the other half of that photo. We came here to see the statue.' she said to him. He walked over to her, sat down and put an arm round her. He had closed the locket and was giving it back.

'You remember?' he asked hopefully.

'Not much. But enough to know that I was with him in the picture and the statue is of me. I remember us laughing. I was happy.' she paused and gripped the locket tightly in her hand. 'I was with him.' She silently let a tear glide down her cheek and splash onto the blades of green grass. No point in crying, she thought. Not a damn thing I can do about it now is there? She quickly stood up, making Jack jump in the process. 'Right, take some pictures of the statue and one from the point my one was taken, about the same distance from it too. Send them back to the hub. I'm going back down to have another look at the town. Meet me at the SUV.' And without letting him reply she walked off, re-joining the pathway a minute later and walked into the town. She meant no offence to Jack but she just needed to be alone with her thoughts. She walked quickly downhill and into the mini town.

Back in the gardens, Jack was speaking to Tosh and Owen in the hub using his headset.

'Okay, guys. Tell me when it's through.' He was just sending over one of the pictures of the statue. There was silence for a moment, then:

'Bloody hell!' Jack laughed at Owen's outburst.

'Yes, Owen. As you can see the statue is of Ebony. She has regained some small fragments of memory involving the Doctor. Match this up to the picture you have on file from her locket. If you can, give me an idea of how long apart these photos were taken from each other. Our ETA at the hub is 2130 hours, so tell Ianto to get some food ready for us. And a strong drink, two glasses this time.'


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

'Jack! You might want to see this!' Toshiko yelled from the control room. Jack was in his office going through some paperwork. He walked out to Tosh's station. It was the day after He and Ebony had gone to Cornwall and discovered the statue of her that appeared in the photo in her locket.

'The computer studied both pictures of the statue. It's dated them to be 12 years apart.' Jack stood staring at both of the pictures as they were displayed on one of the monitors.

'Hmm, that's weird.' He told her. 'That would make her about 7 or 8 when that statue was made.' Toshiko turned round to look at him.

'That's what I wanted you to see. The picture you took shows the statue to be newer than in the photo in Eb's locket.' He crossed his arms at this news.

'So technically, that would mean that Eb's picture hasn't yet been taken, but will be in 12 years time. That would make sense.'

Toshiko looked at him with worry on her face.

'Jack? How does that make sense? Theoretically this picture hasn't been taken yet.'

'Tosh, you're forgetting that: 1, We are sitting smack on top of the rift so anything could happen, and 2, that time travel is extremely possible, bearing in mind we were actually trapped in 1941 for a night.' He turned to look at Ebony who was down in Owen's room. She was sitting on the PM table while Owen was talking to her. He could tell she wasn't listening to a word he was saying. Her eyes were glazed over and she was staring at her shoes.

'You've got a point there. But that would mean that Ebony's a time traveller.'

'Not necessarily.' He said still watching her being talked at. 'It would make her a companion.' He turned back to the screens and leaned closer to Tosh. 'Bring up the 'Time Lord' file.' She quickly scanned through the data base and brought up the file and opened it. It wasn't a very large file. It had brief details and notes. Tosh read through it.

'Wow. Is that who the man in the picture is?' She asked still looking at the contents of the file.

'Sure is.' He said. 'One and only.' He stood up straight again.

'What are we going to say to Eb's?' She asked.

'Nothing, she will find it out herself when she is ready.'

'Find what out?' Came a voice from behind them. They turned round and saw Ebony walking the last few steps to them. Tosh quickly press a button which cleared the screen of the file.

'Nothing.' Jack said to her. 'Get back to work. You don't want it catching up on you.' Ebony was taken aback that she was lied to so obviously, and by Jack of all people. She turned round and stormed off back down the white tiled steps to where Owen was. She had seen Tosh quickly take off the file. But unfortunately for them she hadn't done it quick enough, because she had seen what it was called. Time Lord. She needed to get to a computer.

'Owen?' she said sweetly. He turned round and looked at her. He gave her one of his 'corner of mouth' smiles. 'Where is there a station where I can access the mainframe apart from in the control room?' He stopped smiling and carried on with what he was doing. He thought she was going to ask him something interesting.

'Well, there's one up with Ianto and another down in the basement. Why?' She started for the stairs.

'No reason really.' Jack was watching her as she crossed the room, she glanced at him once but that was enough to say: Don't follow me. She got the lift up to the main corridor and walked through the side door into the fake reception. Ianto came through his beaded curtains to see what was happening.

'Ianto, Jack sent me up to ask for one of your specials or something.' He smiled to himself as he walked passed her and into the corridor.

She quickly logged into the computer. Once in she searched through the files till she found 'Time Lord'. She could hear the lift whirring into life again through the open side door. She quickly hit print. Thank God it was a quick printer, she thought as the last page shot out as she heard hurried footsteps along the corridor. She jumped over the counter and darted out of the front door and into the city of Cardiff.

It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon so not many people were about on the streets. She carried on walking until she reached a coffee shop where she sat down with a Hot Chocolate. She started to read through the papers.

_TORCHWOOD ARCHIVE_

'_TIME LORD'_

_NAME:_ 'THE DOCTOR'

_SPECIES:_ 'TIME LORD' (* see notes)

_AGE:_ UNKNOWN

_VESSEL:_ T.A.R.D.I.S - TIME AND RELATIVE DIMENSION IN SPACE

_KNOWN WHEREABOUTS:_ UNKNOWN

_KNOWN ASSOCIATIONS:_ EBONY STEPHENS (UNKNOWN), ROSE TYLER (DECEASED).

_KNOWN ENDEAVORS:_ 'FULL MOON' FILE 1700's,

ASSISTED DEFEAT OF CYCORAX + VESSEL 25/12/2006

(* 'TIME LORD' SPECIES WIPED OUT IN TIME WAR. ONLY LIVING SURVIVOR. LAST OF SPECIES.

UNLIKELY TO BE TRAVELING ALONE. TENDENCY TO HAVE A COMPANION.)

As she read this first page, most of her questions were answered. He was called The Doctor. She was his companion. He was an Alien. He had a time machine. And finally, she had a last name.

On the next few pages it listed different times he had been sighted or was written down in history or rescues he made. One thing she did notice was that whenever someone appeared to be in danger, he rushed to help. Her brain suddenly clicked into action. She needed to get him here. She needed to see him. She left her untouched drink on the table and ran full speed back towards the Torchwood hub.

She crashed into Owen as she rounded the corner into the corridor, knocking them both flying.

'Shit! Why don't you watch where you're going, yeah?' He said to her. She didn't care though she needed to get to Tosh's computers. Once in the lift she tried to control her breathing and look calm. She slowly walked out of the lift doors looking round the hub to see where Jack and Tosh were. She couldn't see Jack, but there were no surprises as to where Tosh was. And that was exactly where she wanted to be.

'Tosh.' She said, making her turn round very quickly to look at her. She seemed slightly worried. 'Just passed Owen in the corridor. He said he needs his crime scene bag up top, could you take it up to him?' she asked. Toshiko looked suspiciously at her.

'Erm, why can't you do it?' she asked. Ebony replied with:

'Because he asked for you.' Giving her a smile and a quick wink. She slowly got up off her chair and went over to Owen's station where she picked up his bag and carried it into the lift where the doors closed and she went up to meet Owen. Ebony smiled to herself. 'Worked twice. These people are so gullible.'

She sat down in front of Tosh's station where she brought up a dialogue box that she had seen her use before to beam out a message to warn Aliens out of British air space. She typed in only 3 words to be beamed out into space.

_Help, Doctor. Help._

She hit enter and a message appeared confirming that it was sending her message. Then she did the other thing she needed to. She brought up the record system for every person in the UK. She typed in Ebony Stephens. 3 results came up from the search. One of a 3 year old girl with blonde hair and the other was of a newly married woman that also looked nothing like her. And the third was her hospital notes. But they were under only 'Ebony'. Apart from that she didn't exist. No records of her past life that was slowly becoming her current life.

'You won't find anything.' Came a voice from the other side of the room. It was Jack. 'You're not from here. Not from this time.'

'You what?' she said after turning round to face him.

'You're not from this time. You're originally from the future.

That's why there's no record of you. You've not been born yet.' For some reason it all made perfect sense to her.

'And you didn't think that I might want to know that little bit of information? That it might have helped me get my memory back? That I might find out who I am instead of being 'Just Ebony'?'

'You would have found out eventually. You've always been smart like that.' He was standing at the foot of the stairs to the conference room leaning against the rail with his arms crossed. She quickly stood up in anger sending the chair rolling across the room into a work station.

'You knew?' she asked him, almost yelling. He didn't say anything. She walked over to him, just wanting to hurt him anyway possible for keeping this huge, valuable information from her.

As she was walking her mind suddenly threw up a wall of fire in front of her. She knew it wasn't there but it made her stop anyway. It didn't last any more than a second, but a second was all it took. She had looked up at Jack through the imaginary flames. Then she realized why he had brought her to Torchwood.

'You.' She said. She had so much that she wanted to say to him but didn't know what to say first. Then it just viciously flew out obviously shocking Jack a little. 'WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HIM!' She yelled. He looked confused. When he didn't reply she quickly closed the distance between them. 'What did you say?' Yet again he didn't reply. 'Tell me!' she yelled in his face while pushing against his folded arms with all her weight and anger. He didn't move. 'You are so selfish Harkness! Why the hell won't you tell me?' He was looking into her eyes.

'Because I don't know what you're talking about.' She quickly spun round and walked away from him. She came to a stop near one of the stations that hadn't been used for a while. It had old papers strewn on the desk and a glass note board that they used to write down theories and equations. Ebony was so annoyed with Jack, so annoyed with everything that she plunged her hand straight through the glass. Pain shot up her arm and she could see blood starting to well in the long slashes in her skin. She screamed and cursed as Jack quickly walked over to her to check she was alright.

'You know what. I think I'm going to take back the thing I said about you being smart.' He pulled a large handkerchief out of his pocket and started wrapping it around her hand to form a makeshift bandage.

'You were there, Jack.' She said looking up at him. 'You were there. You came up behind him and said something to him. You had your hand on his shoulder. What did you say to him that made him blow up the room, Jack?' He looked away from her. That was what confirmed she was right.

Jack was the man behind the Doctor in her main memory of the explosion.

'I just told him you were suffering.' he said sadly.

'Oh.' She said. She hadn't been expecting that.

She had been thinking badly of Jack. 'Sorry, Jack.' she said quietly as she walked passed him and across the room into the lift. As she pressed the button for the fake reception he turned round to watch her disappear behind the metal doors.

As she rounded the corner into the reception she saw that Owen, Ianto and Toshiko were all standing silently looking at her. They didn't say a word as she walked round them and out the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

The sun was setting now as it was reaching the end of the day. All she could think about was the Doctor as she sat overlooking the city of Cardiff from her vantage point on the bridge. A canal boat lazily made its way beneath her. What was she going to do now? She thought. Is there any point in going back to Torchwood. The only thing for her there is Jack and he won't help much. He didn't even tell her that she was from the future in the year and a half that they had been working together and following her calling to different places. And that's another thing. He knew exactly who The Doctor was while she was searching high and low just to find a little clue. Ohh, she thought. He is going to get such a slap when I get back there. As she leaned on the railing and looked down at the water below her she took a deep breath and sighed.

'Not that bad is it?' Came a voice from behind her. She didn't turn round.

'If only you knew.' she replied. Wishing the stranger would leave her in peace.

'But I do know.' What? She though. She slowly turned round to see who this annoying person was.

It was a young man wearing a suit underneath a hefty coat. He would have looked very smart if it wasn't for the fact he was wearing an old pair of trainers. He had dark brown, fluffy hair and gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. She couldn't read his expression but his eyes looked sad. She slowly raised her hand up to her neck and held her locket in the palm of her hand. Tears welled up in her eyes and slowly slid down her cheeks. She stood watching him, trying to work out if he was actually real or just something her mind created to trick her. Finally she was able to talk again.

'Doctor?' she asked slowly. He gave her a weak smile and walked towards her closing the gap between them. He raised up his hands and wiped away her tears. She looked up into his eyes. It was him. She didn't need him to confirm it. Without caring what happened she flung herself at him and hugged him. He held her tightly back. For the first time that she could remember, she felt she was where she was meant to be. They fitted together perfectly.

'Ebony. My Ebony.' He said as he pulled back slightly so he could see her. He lightly tucked a flyaway bit of hair behind her ear and smiled down at her.

'You came.' she said to him, referring to the message she had beamed out into space just over an hour ago.

'Yeah. I was just going to see the opening of Disney World when the TARDIS went haywire after picking up a distress call and took me into the Torchwood building. Jack told me what had happened and I came looking for you.' She smiled to herself, her off chance plan had worked. He pulled away further so that he was standing just in front of her and he held onto her hands.

'Oww.' She said as he held onto the hand that she had plunged through the glass. He held lightly onto her wrist studying her hand.

He started to take off the now blood red handkerchief that Jack had put on and was examining the wound.

'Ahhh, now I see.' he said as the wounds slowly eked with her blood.

'Now you see what?' she asked him, slightly confused.

'Your blood at Torchwood, you left a nice amount behind. That's how I found you. I scanned your DNA into the TARDIS and she was able to track you down. Kind of like a Sat Nav but with blood.' He said. 'Actually you could have used almost anything; a hair strand, tears, sweat, saliva, urine. All work the same way.' Then he grinned at her, that amazing grin that was shown in the photo. She couldn't help but smile back at him.

'Nice.' she said. With his free hand he reached inside his coat pocket and pull out something that she recognized. 'The sonic screwdriver.' she said as she watched him press different buttons adjusting the setting.

'Remember it then do you?' he asked still concentrating on it.

'Yeah. I remember you holding it to the monitor before the room exploded.' He suddenly looked from the screwdriver to her.

'Ah,' he said. 'So that's one of your only memories then. Nice and cheery, ay.'

'Yep. That's how I kind of remember you. The locket helped too. Hey, what are you doing?' She asked him while he was holding the sonic screwdriver to her wounds. Its tip was now glowing blue and a loud, high pitch buzzing noise was coming from it.

'I'm just cauterizing the wound, stopping it from bleeding.' He said with his concentration face on.

'Oh, right. Thanks. Anyway, I also just remembered us going to the statue on St. Michael's Mount. I remember the picture being taken.' He smiled and stopped the screwdriver and slid it back into his pocket.

'That statue of you; you look amazing in a dress by the way.' She smiled at him and looked down at her hand. There were now fully formed scabs covering the cuts. 'Just don't pick them. That's where I always went wrong.' He said as he reached inside his suit trousers pocket and pulled out a little brown wallet. He opened it up and pulled something out of it and showed her. It was a picture of her. She looked happy. She had a huge smile on her face and there was someone's hand on her shoulder. Behind her she could see the stature of her.

One side of the picture was ripped.

'This is the other half of the picture of you. And just to clarify, that was a rare occasion and you will not see me in a dress again.' she said handing him back his picture and opening her locket to show him. He pulled out some geeky looking glasses and studied the picture.

'Wanna bet? Oh, my word! Look at my hair! I didn't realize it was so, so, Fluffy!' She laughed at him as he self-consciously tried to pat his hair flat. He took his glasses off and returned them to his pocket.

'Doctor?' she asked. He raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement. 'Who am I?' He grinned at this question.

'Ohh, goodie. I've been practicing this one since Jack contacted me telling me you had amnesia.'

He took a sharp but long intake of breath. 'Right. You err, might want to lean on the rail because this might take a while.' She took a step back and rested her elbows and her back against the rail.

'You full name is Ebony Layla Stephens, born to Karen Harris and Michael Stephens. They married on the 21st of July 2024 and had you on the 15th of June 2026. You weighed dead on 8oz and were born in Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. You grew up in a nice seaside town. Forgotten the name of that, sorry. Your parents tragically died on the 2nd of March 2039 in a hover accident. You were left in the kind care of your deranged uncle on your mother's side. He's called Adrian, harmless bless him. Your first kiss was with a boy called Nathan Daniels round your uncle's house, aged 14. You could have done a hell of a lot better in my opinion.

You got that scar on your left thumb from messing around at school with a chisel when you were 15. You met me on the 28th of August 2045 when I accidentally dropped an old Kralation escape pod on you uncle's house. He's fine by the way, living the life of Riley on the insurance pay out. You broke your nose by running into a door from a rogue droid on Section 14 of the Lenia 5 station.' He broke off for a moment. 'And then on the 10th of June 2098, I lost you. You sacrificed yourself to save the Earth. Well, the entire Universe to be exact. The space and time thing is a very, very, very wide spread area. I had to blow up the part of the building you were trapped in to stop those bloody Macolithians ripping apart the Rift. And believe me they regretted it afterwards. But when I found you, you were still alive, battered and bruised like hell, but alive. You must have been out of it for at least 2 weeks after Jack took you into the A & E.

I had taken you two back to 2007 so that he could carry on at Torchwood. That way he was able to take better care of you when you were released from hospital. Oh, and the locket. I had it made for your birthday that was coming up, you're 21 now by the way. I put it on you, after putting in that picture of me, before Jack took you in. It was so you didn't forget me. Guess it worked too.' He laughed. 'But I do have to admit. This one is a pretty unforgettable face.'

He gave her another one of his grins. 'Did that clear everything up?'

'Erm, just one more thing actually.' she said, standing up straight and folding her arms across her chest.

'Fire away!' He said. Then suddenly slapped himself on the forehead as if just remembering something. 'Really sorry, completely escaped my mind that that might not have been the best thing to say.' She looked lost. 'You know . . . Fire . . . Explosion . . . near death of Ebony.' He saw the pieces click in her mind as she understood and she let out a laugh. 'What were you going to say?' he asked.

'Do you ever stop talking?' she said with a smile.

He concentrated as if searching his memory for a moment where he had.

'Errrm, very rarely. I like talking. Talking is good. Its good to talk. Good to chat, natter, waffle . . .the list could go on.' He said as he saw her silently mocking facial expression. 'But being quiet is good too. Silence is 'golden', as they say. And I'm sensing now would be a good time to test that theory.' And he fell quiet. She smiled at him and he returned it. She linked arms with him and started walking back into the main town.

'Come on.' She said. 'We better get back before Jack thinks you've blown me up again.' He stopped walking, making her look at him.

'That was harsh. There was no need for than now, was there. No need at all.' He started walking with her again. 'That was completely uncalled for. Below the belt, that one.'


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own anything to do with Doctor who, only my character, Ebony.**

Back at the Torchwood hub Jack was sweeping up the last of the shards of broken glass from Ebony's outburst. He emptied the dustpan for the last time into the metal bin next to the desk and placed it on the table with the brush as he walked over to the TARDIS. He ran his hand over the side of the large, blue Police box.

'Hey, old girl.' he said to the ship. 'I've missed you like crazy. Had some good times, didn't we?' He patted it lightly and walked round the back of it. As he rounded the last part he saw The Doctor standing in front of the space where the invisible lift, made of a slab of stone from the ground in the street above them. Behind him was Ebony. They were both smiling at him.

'Shall we, Erm, leave you two alone for a minute? Get re-acquainted?' Said The Doctor. Ebony noticed that Jack's face reddened a little. She walked over to him, stopping just in front of him. She fished out his handkerchief from her pocket and held it out for him. He looked at it, where it was once a lovely shade of white, it was now covered in her blood.

'You can keep that, thanks.' He said. She stood on her tip toes slightly as she reached up and hooked her arms round the back of his neck and hugged him.

'Thank you, Jack.' She said to his shoulder due to her being shorter than him. 'Thanks, for taking care of me. You did a good job.'

He smiled to himself and lightly squeezed her while lifting her up off her feet. She laughed as he kissed her on the cheek.

'It really was my pleasure.' He set her down and she walked back over to The Doctor dragging Jack with her by his braces. 'Hey, careful there. Don't ping them, please.' She jokingly pulled them back further.

'Come with us.' The Doctor said to him while standing with his hands in his trouser pockets. Jack looked sadly at them both.

'I can't. Not this time.' He looked up at the conference room to see the three faces of Owen, Ianto and Toshiko staring down at the three of them. 'Torchwood needs me. Plus you two need to get re-acquainted.' He smiled at them and folded his arms. The Doctor slid an arm round Ebony's shoulders and said:

'Well, permission to take leave then Captain.' Jack let out a small laugh.

'Permission granted, soldier.' He saluted The Doctor, who returned the gesture then guided Ebony towards the doors of the TARDIS. 'Just don't forget to come see me some time.' They smiled at him and Ebony said, before stepping into the TARDIS for what seemed the first time:

'Never. Thank you.' Then she disappeared behind the doors as she closed them.

When Ebony turned round to see the interior, she was breath taken. The room was huge, gigantic even. It was bigger on the inside! There was a control console in the centre of the room, covered in levers and switches and numerous dials and buttons. In the centre of that was a huge glass tube that extended towards the ceiling.

It was slowly pumping itself, doing something that she didn't know. And leaning against a battered two-seater chair behind it all was The Doctor. He had that huge grin on again.

'Where do you want to go then? Back? Forwards? Side to Side? Up or Down? Diagonally?' She walked over to him and leant against a safe looking area on the console.

'I was thinking, maybe carrying on with your trip to see the opening of Disney world? What do you think?' She asked, unsure of the reply.

'Genius.' He said. 'You got to love a bit of Disney.' He hopped over to one side of the console and started playing around. 'I feel a cheesy line coming on.' He said as he spun dials, pulled levers and flicked switches. 'High ho, high ho. It's off to work we go!' And with that he pushed one of the larger levers and the centre of the TARDIS wailed into action.

Jack watched on as, once again, The Doctor and his companion faded away into Time and Space.


End file.
